52 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



notice, and left us in the hands of two understrap- 

 pers. 



Our road lay over a mountainous country, but gen- 

 erally clear of wood ; and in about two hours we reach- 

 ed a collection of ranchos, called El Posos. One of 

 our men rode up to a hut and dismounted, as if he 

 were at home. The woman of the house chided him 

 for not having come the night before, which he gruffly 

 ascribed to us ; and it was evident that we stood a 

 chance of losing him too. But we had a subject of 

 more immediate interest in the want of a breakfast. 

 Our tea and coffee, all that we had left after the de- 

 struction of our stores by gunpowder, were gone for- 

 ward, and for some time we could get nothing. And 

 here, in the beginning of our journey, we found a scar- 

 city of provant greater than we had ever met with be- 

 fore in any inhabited country. The people lived ex- 

 clusively upon tortillas — flat cakes made of crushed 

 Indian corn, and baked on a clay griddle — and black 

 beans. Augustin bought some of these last, but they 

 required several hours' soaking before they could be 

 eaten. At length he succeeded in buying a fowl, 

 through which he ran a stick, and smoked it over a 

 fire, without dressing of any kind, and which, with tor- 

 tillas, made a good meal for a penitentiary system of 

 diet. As we had expected, our principal muleteer was 

 unable to tear himself away ; but, like a dutiful hus- 

 band, he sent, by the only one that was now left, a 

 loving message to his wife at Gualan. 



At the moment of starting, our remaining attendant 

 said he could not go until he had made a pair of shoes, 

 and we were obliged to wait ; but it did not take long. 

 Standing on an untanned cowhide, he marked the size 

 of his feet with a piece of coal, cut them out with his 



